Epson TM-T85 Reciept Printer

**Kodiak** · July 18th, 2007, 12:59 PM

This donut shop has one of these printers hooked up via ethernet and it's not working. The printer has been verified to work. The deal is here there is no print sever and the printer has a parallel to ethernet adapter directly connected to it and it's not a print server. I thought maybe I'm missing something here but isn't there suppose to be some sort of print server or some sort of box it attaches to so the pc's on the network can see it and configure there pos software to print to it?

**geoscomp** · July 18th, 2007, 02:07 PM

yes..the parallel handshake will not work with the ethernet adapter cable..you need a parallel print server to connect it to that has a ethernet connection to hook up to the network..it has to be visible via the network protocol..alternately you could hook it up to one computer via it's parallel connection, and then share it with the other networked computers if the particular POS software you are using allows that.

**slgrieb** · July 18th, 2007, 09:31 PM

I'd go with a print server. It is well worth the 50 bucks or so one costs to make network printing independent of a single machine. You usually need to install a management utility on some machine to configure the print server, and client software on the individual computers on the LAN that will use the printer.

**Kodiak** · July 18th, 2007, 11:37 PM

Come to find out there is a piece of the puzzle missing. How it is suppose to be hooked up is with a serial to ethernet adapter at each end one connected, of course, to the printer and the other connected to the main computer and sharing it. I think you are correct in that it should be connected to a print server and then shared however that is the way the manufacturer of this pos software systems sells it so I have the missing link on overnight order so we can get it all running correctly. They pulled all this stuff out of a garage and had some guy hook it all up for them and this is the way he had it hooked up. I thought maybe I was missing something but apparently not. Thanks guys and gals for the input as always.

**Kodiak** · July 19th, 2007, 03:40 PM

Not quite yet. The register 2 prints and works fine until you plug it into the network then it kills the com port the printer is plugged into and nothing works anymore then I have to unplug the network and uninstall everything again and restart and reinstall the printer again but I can't plug in the network which makes it useless. I have set the ip to a different ip and set it to auto and still it happens. What else can I try? Register 2 does communicate with the pc that is the file server no problem. There is only 2 registers and 3 printers. Both pc's are running win2000.

**geoscomp** · July 19th, 2007, 04:08 PM

I'm confused..why can't you connect the printer directly to a serial port, since it has (apparently) a serial port connector, and whatever computer you want it hooked up to does as well..just use a serial cable, share the printer, and install the shared printer on whatever computers need it? That eliminates any networking problems

**slgrieb** · July 19th, 2007, 05:42 PM

Well, if the printer is serial, I think you can forget a print server, so I would think directly attaching it to a computer and sharing it is all you can do. Like Geos, I'm confused because I don't quite understand why the mfg. originally had such a weird setup.

**Kodiak** · July 19th, 2007, 05:57 PM

My fault, I wasn't real clear here. They have three printers and two registers with win2000, the third printer issue is just the missing piece and it is on order and that will be resolved. The third printer will be attached to register 1 and shared when I get the missing piece. This is a separate issue. This is a printer attached directly to register 2, serial, and all works until you plug in the network cable then it kills the printer and the cat cable has to be pulled and the printer un-installed and com port un-installed and then reinstalled to make it work again but the cable cannot be plugged in.. Everything is attached the same as register 1 and register one and register 2 communicate just fine via the network.

**puncak** · July 28th, 2007, 12:58 AM

Hello do any of you guys have the driver for this printer ...TM-T85 receipt printer....or maybe which site to download the driver from ?

**arch0nmyc0n** · July 28th, 2007, 02:15 PM

I've had the oportunity to work with these printers before. It was a surprisingly similar setup. I didn't do the initial setup but it was fairly straight forward. I was dreading having to set these things up in conjunction with old touch screen monitors on Windows 2000. The two POS printers were directly attached via serial to the two machines acting as registers. There was a third printer that was networked right into the kitchen itself. As far as I can remember, there was a serial to network junction that converted it fine. Took me a little while but I found out the IP address it insisted on using (was already set to use) and I configured the network based on it.
I was able to locate the drivers with a google search and... well... checking out another site I won't name but suffice to say it is a handy guide of drivers. I set them up on each machine in windows and then just pointed the program to them and away they went.
As far as I could tell the one in the kitchen didn't have a seperate print server it was attached to, though I would probably guess it was an option on the printer you could get if you wanted it.

**Kodiak** · May 13th, 2008, 12:56 AM

OK theses people shut down for a few months and now they want to get going and get this up and going correctly. I now have full run of the place and I have discovered what was up with the printers and all and have gotten everything to run as it should with the exception of the second workstation. There appears to be an issue with the com1 and 2 ports. Device manager says all is fine. Here is what I have done:

1: Confirmed printer worked on another unit.
2: Uninstalled ports and deleted the printer/restarted the pc and reinstalled the printer.
3: Run a full repair and reinstalled all updates.

**NooNoo** · May 13th, 2008, 04:18 AM

Com ports do die... It took me a while to believe it, but I got a standard comport mouse (no converter to ps2) and an external modem... got nothing out of either, yet windows reported the ports as good.

I am saying grab something like a comport mouse (must be a proper comport mouse to be sure) or a hardware comport modem and see if those work.

**arch0nmyc0n** · May 13th, 2008, 09:23 AM

You've probably already done this, but make sure the ports are enabled in BIOS. I had a few boards with 98 and 2k that would show the com ports as enabled when they in fact were off. Maybe try changing the addressing while your in there. This is why I always keep one of these around. It's very rare that I find someone that needs one, but everytime I do it's a quick sale and they're usually willing to pay a lot more than the card is actually worth. Noo is right though, test the existing ones with a simple serial device to see if they actually work.

Oh yeah, one more thing, keep in mind some older boards you had to plug the serial cables into the motherboard. Make sure this was done properly as I've seen them put on completely wrong in several systems.

**slgrieb** · May 13th, 2008, 02:36 PM

Kodiak, I'd suggest biting the bullet and getting some decent diagnostic software and a fistful of loopback connectors. These days, you don't often need them, but if you have reason to suspect a malfunction with a port, that's still the most reliable way to test. You need software that is bootable and takes potential Windows issues out of the picture.

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